


The Boy and the Mermaid

by Weisel



Category: No. 6 (Anime & Manga), No. 6 - All Media Types, No. 6 - Asano Atsuko
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:55:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22841344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weisel/pseuds/Weisel
Summary: My contribution to the No.6 "Myths and Legends" zine! A fairytale retelling of the fated bond between Nezumi and Shion.
Relationships: Nezumi & Shion (No. 6), Nezumi/Shion (No. 6)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 44
Collections: Myths and Legends of No. 6





	The Boy and the Mermaid

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to Vox for being a fantastic editor as always! I'd be too nervous to apply for any zine without you as my beta!

_ “Tell me a story!” _

_ Shion smiled at the little girl tugging his sleeve. “Sure. Go pick out a book.” _

_ Lili shook her head. “No, tell me a new story!” _

_ “Alright. What kind of story?” _

_ “One about mermaids!” Lili replied excitedly, bouncing in her seat. _

_ “Mermaids?” _

_ “Mermaids! And adventure! And true love’s kiss!” _

_ Shion laughed nervously. “Ah, I’m sorry, Lili. I don’t know any stories like that.” _

_ Lili pouted. “Then make one up!” _

_ Shion tapped his chin as he thought, then replied, “Well, I’ll try, but I can’t promise it’ll be very good. Just go easy on me, alright? I’ve never made up a story like this before.” _

_ “Mm-hm!” Lili nodded. _

_ “Okay.” Shion cleared his throat, took a deep breath, and began. _

* * *

Once upon a time, there was a boy who lived on an island far away. The island was beautiful and no one there ever went hungry. Many people even said it was the most perfect place in the world, but the boy never quite believed it. After all, how could he know if he’d never been anywhere else? He spent his days learning as much as he could about the world around him, but learning from books and lessons weren’t enough to satisfy his curiosity.

On the day the boy turned twelve, something strange happened that would change his life forever. Everyone was shut away in their homes as a storm tore across the island. The storms themselves weren’t strange this time of year, nor were the waves that crashed far beyond the shore. What  _ was _ strange was the form that washed up in the boy’s yard. In spite of the storm that continued around him, he hurried out to see what the ocean had just spat out. To his surprise, it was a young mermaid with dark hair and eyes like the stormy ocean itself, certainly no older than the boy himself, tangled up in fishing net and seaweed.

For a moment, the boy was very, very confused. The few times he’d heard of mermaids, they were always just made up creatures that no one particularly cared about. In the world he understood, meeting a mermaid was impossible. Yet there he was, staring directly at a real, live mermaid.

And then, of course, he stepped closer to get a better look. How could he turn back from such an amazing discovery?

“Go away!” the mermaid hissed as the boy approached.

The boy didn’t listen. He wasn’t always very good at listening once something caught his interest. Even if some people might’ve called him annoying or nosy for it, his curiosity wasn’t necessarily a bad trait. “I can help you,” he told the mermaid. He could see now that the mermaid couldn’t possibly break free on his own.

The mermaid tried to squirm away from the boy. “I don’t need your help, human!”

“If you don’t need any help, then why are you still tangled up?” the boy asked.

The mermaid stopped struggling against the ropes and allowed the boy to untangle him. “You’re not going to eat me, are you?” he asked.

The question shocked the boy. “Eat you? Of course not!”

“Good,” the mermaid said. “I was testing you.”

The boy thought that this was an awfully strange test. “What if I’d said yes?” he asked.

“Then I’d eat you first!” the mermaid snapped with bared teeth.

“I’ve never heard of people eating mermaids or mermaids eating people,” the boy said. “Does that really happen?”

“Would I ask if it didn’t?”

The boy felt unsettled, the same way he did when he was told to stop asking questions about things that didn’t concern him. He was beginning to believe there was a dark secret lurking right under his nose, and he was frightened by what it might be.

“Let me carry you back to the water,” the boy said. Regardless of truth or reality, he knew mermaids didn’t do well on land.

“You’ll get in trouble if anyone knows you saw me,” the mermaid warned him.

“I don’t care,” the boy replied.

“Then don’t blame me for whatever happens to you later.”

The boy picked up the mermaid and carried him back to the ocean through the storm. Despite the boy’s kindness, the mermaid had the nerve to tease him the entire way to the shore. The boy had to wonder if the mermaid was remotely grateful for the help.

“Okay, put me down here,” the mermaid said once the boy had waded into the crashing waves.

But the boy didn’t want the mermaid to leave just yet, not when he still had so many more questions. “We’ll see each other again someday, right?” the boy asked.

The mermaid seemed amused by the idea. “I hope not. That would mean one of us got really unlucky.”

“What do you mean?” the boy asked, but the mermaid disappeared into a wave without another word. “Wait! Come back!”

The boy watched the water and waited, but the mermaid didn’t come back.

Four years passed before the boy caught another glimpse of the mermaid. Whether he meant to or not, he was always searching for a sign. There was always the chance that the mermaid was still nearby. And maybe, just maybe, the mermaid was looking for the boy, too. And finally one day, that sign came to him in a flash of silver scales by the boat docks.

The boy ran down to the docks as fast as he could, trying to catch up with what he was certain wasn’t just a fish. He ran until he reached the end of the furthest pier, out of breath and unable to see anything in the water below.

One of the fishermen nearby noticed the boy and called over, “Hey! Are you alright?”

The boy nodded. “Yes, I’m alright!” He thought perhaps the fisherman could help him, so he asked, “Have you seen any…” He paused to choose his words carefully. He still hadn’t told anyone about the time he’d met a mermaid. “...strange fish?” he finished.

“What sort of strange fish?” the fisherman asked.

The boy thought for a moment before answering. “The kind of fish that’s highly intelligent and definitely shouldn’t be eaten.”

“One of those?” The fisherman laughed in a way that made the boy slightly nervous. “Looking for someone?”

The boy’s heart jumped in his chest. “Yes!” He quickly replied. Amazingly, this fisherman seemed to have answers to the questions he’d kept to himself for years. “You understand what I’m talking about, right?”

The fisherman laughed his same laugh. “Oh, yes, I think I know what you mean. Why don’t you come along with us? We’re just about to head out. Maybe you’ll find your friend along the way. Just keep an eye on the water.”

“Really? Thank you!” the boy exclaimed. This really could be the day that he’d see the mermaid again. He’d never felt so excited in his life.

The boy eagerly boarded the fishing boat with the fisherman and his crew. He stood at the edge and watched the waves as they traveled further and further out into the ocean. But even when the island was barely more than a smudge of color on the horizon, the boy still hadn’t spotted anything.

“Are you sure we’re in the right place?” the boy asked uncertainly.

“The right place for what?” the fisherman replied.

“Mermaids,” the boy said. “That’s what you were talking about, wasn’t it? You said I might find my friend.” The men on the boat all laughed, and the boy suddenly felt scared. “What are you laughing at?”

One of the men grabbed the boy while another one tied his wrists behind his back.

“What are you doing!? Stop!” The boy tried to pull his arms free from the rope, but it was already knotted tight. “Wait, please! Why are you doing this!?”

No one answered him. Instead, the fisherman pushed the boy off the boat and into the water.

The boy fought to escape the rope, but the more he struggled, further he sank. He was nowhere near the surface and couldn’t hold his breath any longer. He didn’t know what else to do but give up.

Down, down, down, he sank. The sunlight overhead disappeared behind a faint flash of silver, and then… there was nothing.

There was nothing for a long time. The boy was trapped in a silent, dreamless sleep with no end in sight.

_ “Wake up!” _

The boy startled awake, then burst into a fit of coughs. He coughed and coughed until all the seawater was out of his lungs. Then, he finally looked up to see who had shouted at him. A familiar pair of eyes looked back at him.

_ Finally! _

“It’s you!” the boy exclaimed, then coughed a couple more times. “You came back!”

“Came back? Hardly. You’re the one who showed up on my doorstep,” the mermaid said, then wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. “Ugh, what did you  _ eat?” _

“Wait, do mermaids have doorsteps?” the boy asked as he sat up.

“You don’t know anything, do you?”

The boy didn’t answer. His attention had been captured by his surroundings. Stone walls surrounded them completely and curved up into a ceiling where only a small patch of sky peeked through. Plants and small sea creatures of all shapes and colors covered the white sands of the ocean floor, and the turquoise water sparkled in the sunlight. The boy had never seen anything so incredible in his life.

“Where am I?” he asked.

“A cave,” the mermaid answered. “What does it look like?”

“How did I get here?”

“I carried you. Partway, at least. You didn’t seem to be swimming very well on your own,” the mermaid replied.

The boy remembered struggling in the water and looked down at his wrists. The rope was gone. “You saved me? Wait– Those men– They tried to drown me!”

“Why are you acting so surprised?” the mermaid teased.

The boy was baffled. “Why would they do that!?”

“Because you know too much, obviously,” the mermaid replied. “They couldn’t have you telling other humans that mermaids exist. It’d ruin business.”

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about,” the boy said. He was beginning to get frustrated with the mermaid’s confusing answers. “Why am I not supposed to know that you exist?”

The mermaid sighed. “You really don’t have a clue, do you?”

“Maybe I don’t, but I want to know. I want to understand what’s going on,” the boy replied.

“If you really don’t know anything about what humans do to us, I doubt you could handle the truth,” the mermaid said with a dark look in his eyes.

The boy shook his head. “I can’t just forget what happened! Please, tell me everything. And maybe… maybe there’s something I can do.”

And then the mermaid  _ did _ tell him everything. He told the boy about how fishermen had captured him four years ago. He told stories of the terrible deeds he’d witnessed and how much humans had ravaged the ocean around the island. Entire reefs had been destroyed, many creatures had died out, and mermaids were no longer able to live in the place they’d called home for years. The boy didn’t know if he could take anymore, but he had to know the truth.

“Why?” the boy asked tearfully. “Why are people doing this?”

The mermaid smiled, but he didn’t look happy. “Well, that’s the best part of it all. Humans eat us.”

The boy shook his head in disbelief. “No, that can’t be true! Why would anyone do that!?”

“I was hoping you could tell me the answer to that question, seeing as you’re a human,” the mermaid replied.

“I’m sorry,” the boy said sadly and bowed his head down. “I don’t know. I don’t understand how people can ignore this.” He couldn’t help but shed tears over this terrible truth. “I’m so sorry for what humans have done. If I’d known…”

“And now that you know, what will you do?” the mermaid asked.

The boy looked up to meet the mermaid’s gaze. “What will I do?” He couldn’t live with himself if he didn’t do something to change what was happening. He knew what he had to do. “I’ll go home and bring an end to this. I’ll fight to protect the ocean with everything I have.”

“Good luck with that,” the mermaid scoffed, though he seemed satisfied with the boy’s answer. “You should really rest here for a while before you take on that project. After that dive, you aren’t exactly fit for physical activity, and it won’t do any good if you drown on the swim back to the island.”

The boy suddenly realized that he didn’t know how else to get back home. “I have to swim the whole way?” he asked in disbelief. “I don’t think that’s possible! But I have to try, don’t I?”

“Don’t be an idiot,” the mermaid replied. “Of course you can’t just swim home on your own. You wouldn’t even make it halfway. But I might be able to lend a fin.”

While the boy recovered, he and the mermaid talked the time away. They shared stories with each other and soon realized that humans and mermaids weren’t so different after all. They all experienced the same emotions, cried for the same reasons, laughed when they were happy, and yearned for the same things in life. The only real difference was where they were born, in water or on land.

The two were quite close by the time the boy was ready for the journey home. The boy knew he couldn’t stay, but a part of him never wanted to leave. Every time he looked at the mermaid, his heart would skip a beat and he’d catch himself smiling. He knew that he was in love, and it would be so much easier to just spend the rest of his days there with the mermaid, far away from the island and its dark secrets. But… he couldn’t. He knew he couldn’t ignore the rest of the world forever, not when he had such an important job to do back home.

Even with the mermaid’s help, the swim back to the island was a difficult one. They couldn’t stop to rest anywhere, so they had to be careful with their time and energy. There were times the boy feared they’d never make it, and there were times the mermaid seemed scared, too. But thankfully, they both made it to the rocky shore alive and in one piece.

“We made it!” the boy laughed in disbelief as he collapsed onto the dock.

“Yeah, we did.” The mermaid smiled, but something about his expression seemed sad. “I have to go. It’s still too dangerous for me to be here.”

The boy’s heart sank. “Please don’t disappear like you did all those years ago,” he pleaded quietly. “Waiting then was hard enough, and now… now I know that I love you.”

The mermaid hesitated to respond to the boy’s confession. “You can’t love me, not when you barely know who I am. You’re just curious about what you don’t understand.”

“That’s not true,” the boy protested and sat up. “I already know so much about who you are. I know I’d care for you just as much if you were a human or I was a mermaid. And I know I can’t bear to think I might not ever see you again.”

The mermaid looked into the boy’s eyes and reached up to touch his cheek. “I can’t stay here. But someday, I’ll be back.” He raised his chin and kissed the boy’s lips. “I promise.”

This time, when the mermaid disappeared, the boy didn’t call for him to stay or wait around for his return. Instead, he turned his back to the ocean and walked toward the village with his head held high and hope in his heart.

Every day from then on, the boy worked hard to make the island a place where mermaids and ocean creatures could live in peace. Even when he felt sad, lonely, or weak, he tried to be brave and kept fighting for what was right. Finally, after a long, long time, the boy’s efforts paid off. Fish began to return to the waters, colorful sea plants dotted the once barren ocean floor, and eventually even a few mermaids were sighted in the distance. The boy’s dream was becoming a reality, and he knew in his heart the mermaid would someday return, and when he did, the island would be a place the mermaid could call home once again.

* * *

_ Lili leaned forward in anticipation, bunching the hem of her skirt in her small fists. “The mermaid comes back, right? The one he’s in love with?” _

_ “Truly, madly, deeply, and hopelessly so,” Shion added with a small laugh. _

_ “So? Does he?” Lili pressed. _

_ “What do you think, Nezumi?” Shion asked. _

_ Nezumi sat back against the couch and crossed his arms. “You’ve certainly improved since I first heard you butcher Macbeth. The tears were accurate, but that pun was inexcusable.” _

_ “No, Mister Nezumi!” Lili pouted. “Does the mermaid come back?” _

_ Nezumi scoffed, “Of course he came back. If this story had a sad ending, Shion would already be weeping against my shoulder.” He gestured toward Shion and shook his head. “But no, he’s sitting there, grinning like an idiot.” _

_ Shion couldn’t argue about Nezumi’s last point. His cheeks were starting to hurt. _

_ Lili giggled, then turned toward Shion again. “So? Is it true? Did the mermaid come back?” _

_ “Yes, he did,” Shion answered. He looked over to Nezumi, who casually hid his own grin behind a hand and looked away after their eyes met. “He came back, and they lived happily ever after. The end.” _

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] The Boy and the Mermaid](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28311543) by [elrohir podfic (elrohir)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elrohir/pseuds/elrohir%20podfic)




End file.
